1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a straddle-type vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a straddle-type vehicle includes a rear suspension that absorbs impact from the ground in order to improve the riding comfort. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-241922 discloses a motorcycle which includes a rear suspension located below a seat, a silencer located below the rear suspension and a rear arm that supports a rear wheel, and in which a bottom end portion of the rear suspension is coupled to the rear arm.
In a straddle-type vehicle, it is desired to lower the position of the seat in order to improve the contact between a rider's foot and the ground. However, in the case where the rear suspension is located below the seat and the silencer is located below the rear suspension, it is not easy to lower the position of the seat.
For the motorcycle disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-241922, it is conceivable to lower the position of the rear suspension in order to lower the position of the seat. Specifically, it is conceivable that the bottom end portion of the rear suspension can be located below the rear arm. However, the silencer is located below the rear suspension. In order to lower the position of the rear suspension while maintaining the minimum ground clearance of the silencer, the capacity of the silencer needs to be decreased.
In the motorcycle disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-241922, the rear suspension is inclined such that the size thereof in a vehicle up-down direction is larger than the size thereof in a vehicle front-rear direction. In order to lower the position of the seat and provide a sufficient capacity of the silencer with certainty, it is conceivable to decrease the size of the rear suspension in an axial direction to decrease the size thereof in the vehicle up-down direction. However, when the size of the rear suspension in the axial direction is decreased, the stroke amount of the rear suspension is decreased. This deteriorates the riding comfort. Alternatively, it is conceivable to locate the rear suspension such that the bottom end portion (rear end portion) thereof is farther rearward with respect to a top end portion (front end portion) thereof in the vehicle front-rear direction without changing the size of the rear suspension in the axial direction. Specifically, it is conceivable to increase the inclination angle of the rear suspension. In this case, since the size of the rear suspension in the vehicle up-down direction is decreased, the position of the seat can be lowered. However, the rear wheel is located rearward of the rear suspension. Therefore, when the rear suspension is inclined at a large inclination angle, the rear suspension and the rear wheel interfere with each other. In order to avoid such interference, the rear wheel needs to be located farther rearward, which may undesirably increase the length of the vehicle in the vehicle front-rear direction.
In the motorcycle disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-241922, the rear arm includes a left arm portion, a right arm portion, and a bridge portion that couples the left arm portion and the right arm portion to each other. The bottom end portion of the rear suspension is attached to a top portion of the bridge portion. Specifically, an attachment portion of the bottom end portion of the rear suspension is located above the rear arm. Therefore, the rear suspension can be attached to the rear arm from a position to the side of the rear arm by use of a tool such as a driver or the like. In order to attach the rear suspension to the rear arm from a position to the side of the rear arm by use of a tool in the state where the position of the bottom end portion of the rear suspension is lowered, the rear suspension needs to be attached at a position below the arm portions. This decreases the capacity of the silencer as described above. For this reason, merely lowering the position of the bottom end portion of the rear suspension is not sufficient, and it is necessary to consider the attachment of the rear suspension to the rear arm.